A/N: Sorry to put this here, but I'm really screaming for a beta reader for this story (and I'd even be more grateful if it's someone who'd chop me up, eat me alive, criticise and point out plot holes and ty characterisations!) Anyone? Please? *puppy eyes*

Part Two

“Unnie~~~~”

The wild cry startled Jessica. She recognized the voice, but before she could even search for its owner, a soft body had rammed into her from the back.

“Whoa!” Putting her hand on the wall for emergency support, she managed to stay on her feet, saving herself from greeting the ground face first.

Jessica looked back; Yoona was hugging her by the hips, with a massive grin worthy of those clean-and-grin sparkly toothpaste commercials attached to her face. But said face was streaked with mud and dirt, and her clothes were in an even muddier state— patches of mud in various degree of dampness were on both her clothes and limbs. Her hair was a complete mess too, a few brown leaves tangled and trapped within the muddied locks.  God knows what she had been doing prior to this.

Jessica looked at her own clothes; it’s perfectly unfortunate that she had chosen this day to wear her white shorts. She spotted some brown stains at the sides and cringed. But with a beam that blinded and sparkling eyes that dazzled, Yoona had softened Jessica again.

“Unnie!”

“Gosh. Yoongie. How many times have I told you, don’t ru-”

“Run and hug you um, unnancey what?”

“Unannounced.”

Yoona nodded rapidly, showing her approval for the word usage.

“That’s the right word, unnie! But I called you, it’s not unannounced!”

Jessica laughed, “Yes, brilliant, Yoongie.”

“Breee…?”

“Liant. Brilliant.”

“Okay, you’re brilliant too unnie, but I don’t know what it means.”

The warmth found its way into Jessica, like all those other times she spent with Yoona. Trickling in from her toes and gurgling through her veins, against gravity and all odds, spreading itself into every single part of her. Finally, it converged, exploding into a smile. Her body and heart tingling with warmth and love from those childish words.

Brilliant, Yoona really was brilliant.

“Unnie, I won!”

“Hmm? What did you win?”

“Her stupid war.”

The voice came not from Yoona, but from another young girl who was walking towards them, one long arm hugging a bag of chips protectively.

“Soo………”

“Young,” the girl completed it for Jessica, when the seconds ticked by too awkwardly, “Unnie, you always take too long to recall my name.”

Jessica laughed dryly when Yoona chimed in agreement, siding with her best friend. Yoona in the opposing camp wasn’t something Jessica was used to, but she couldn’t deny the cold hard facts. She only remembered Sooyoung as the friend of Yoona’s who gobbled food and had a contract with Yoona. Something like a best friend contract that they had bugged Jessica to draw up upon watching some drama. The name wasn’t that important to Jessica, at least she knew of Sooyoung’s existence and had a face to match that best friend title.

Yoona was looking at Jessica, expecting an answer to explain that lack of recognition for her best friend. But little kids had short span of attention, especially Yoona. Jessica was confident of switching topic easily.

“So, what’s this war about?”

“Gang fight!” Yoona yelled excitedly, immediately forgetting everything else, as she swung her arms and ducked around as though she was really in a fight.

“What?! You fought??” Jessica was ready to reprimand Yoona, but held back the words at the last moment, “Yoongie, didn’t I tell you to stop getting into fights?”

“But it’s a gang fight, unnie!”

“Unnie, it’s just their group throwing mud and stuff at each other,” Sooyoung spoke up and waved her bag of chips, “they got me this so that I would be their referee.”

“So, it means they fought within their group? Friendly fight?”

Sooyoung nodded and remarked that it’s the most epic clash that ever happened. Looking at  how filthy Yoona was, coupled with Yoona’s endless aftermath commentary, Jessica felt inclined to believe Sooyoung’s words. Running her eyes all over, Jessica checked once more that Yoona wasn’t injured, and breathed in relief.

Thank god.

To Jessica’s ultimate horror, though, Yoona wasn’t done for the day. A meeting with her Grasshopper Hunters sub-unit members was the plan instead. Sooyoung waved a vague goodbye, completely unperturbed. But before Yoona could run off, Jessica stuck out a hand and caught her by the collar, determined to prevent her from more ridiculous activities.  

“Unnie!!!” Yoona howled in dismay, wriggling violently against Jessica’s grasp.

“Yoongie! You look like mudman, I’m gonna get you home.”

“NOOOOOOO. IT’S GRASSHOPPER DAY!”

“Grasshoppers would notice you from a mile away, you’re looking too brown.”

That, promptly shut Yoona up and tamed her back to docility.

“Sometimes, I really wonder if you’re eleven.”

“She acts like those seven years old boys in her group,” Sooyoung laughed and stuck out her tongue at Yoona.

“Bleah, eat your chips! Unnie, I’m really eleven!”

“No! I need to save them!” Sooyoung frowned, “Or should I eat them? Jessica unnie, should I?”

“Yoongie, I know you’re ten. It’s just… you’re too cute,” Jessica couldn’t think of a way to explain to Yoona how it was but a figure of speech, “and Sooyoung, you don’t have to call me unnie.”

“But-”

“Unnie is made in USA. They don’t use unnie there!”

The obvious contradictions in her sentence were ignored and young Sooyoung had failed to pick it up as well. Jessica had been right about the short attention span, they had moved on easily from that. Yoona linked arms with Sooyoung and the conversation topic between them progressed to deep fried grasshoppers for unknown reasons. Somehow,  it was a comforting situation for Jessica.

They passed by the convenience store on the way back and in thankfulness for the young minds and their positive energy, Jessica dec